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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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Fusion Science and Technology
August 2025
Latest News
DOE fast tracks test reactor projects: What to know
The Department of Energy today named 10 companies that want to get a test reactor critical within the next year using the DOE’s offer to authorize test reactors outside of national laboratories. As first outlined in one of the four executive orders on nuclear energy released by President Trump on May 23 and in the request for applications for the Reactor Pilot Program released June 18, the companies must use their own money and sites—and DOE authorization—to get reactors operating. What they won’t need is a Nuclear Regulatory Commission license.
J. F. Santarius, G. L. Kulcinski, L. A. El-Guebaly
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 44 | Number 2 | September 2003 | Pages 289-293
Technical Paper | Fusion Energy - Advanced Designs | doi.org/10.13182/FST03-A349
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper investigates whether a fusion power plant could be designed to be passively proliferation-proof. Even low neutron production rates enable fissile-fuel breeding, so such a fusion reactor must burn neutron-lean fuels. To burn these fuels economically requires a high-power-density fusion concept, and a D-3He field-reversed configuration will be analyzed here. The paper discusses physics and engineering design features that would defeat attempts to modify the reactor to burn the neutron-rich fuels D-T and D-D. These include burning an advanced fusion fuel, utilizing direct energy conversion, minimizing the radius to leave inadequate room for D-T neutron shielding of superconducting magnets, designing a single-module, full-lifetime fusion core requiring no module changeout, and using an organic coolant.